Alaska Airlines fired two flight attendants for respectful, faith-shaped questions about the Equality Act—revealing how corporate “inclusion” punishes biblical dissent and threatens conscience in the modern workplace.
Alaska Airlines fired two flight attendants, Lacey Smith and Marli Brown, after they raised respectful questions about the company’s public support for the so‑called Equality Act on an internal message board.[1] Their questions were simple: What would this law mean for protections for women and for people of faith in the workplace?
For that, they lost the jobs they loved.
The case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. First Liberty is arguing that Alaska Airlines and the flight attendants’ union violated federal law by discriminating against these women for their religious beliefs.[1] Whatever the court decides, the facts already expose something deeper than a single HR decision. They reveal the shape of a new workplace orthodoxy—and the price of refusing to bow.
Alaska Airlines is free to take positions on public policy. Companies do this every day. The problem is not that the airline voiced support for the Equality Act. The problem is what happened next.
The company invited employee feedback on its internal forum, then punished only those whose questions came from a Christian moral framework.[1] That is not neutrality. It is a confession that certain beliefs are now unwelcome in the corporate liturgy.
This is what “inclusion” often means in practice:
When dissent from a biblical worldview becomes a fireable offense, “diversity” has turned into a tool of quiet coercion.
Some will shrug and say, “It’s just a job. Find another airline.” That response ignores three realities.
First, this is about law, not preference.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act forbids employers from firing people because of their religious beliefs.[1] When companies can publicly solicit feedback, then terminate employees whose faith shapes their concerns, the law becomes a hollow shell.
Second, this is about power, not just policy.
Major corporations carry immense social, economic, and narrative power. When they align with one side of the cultural revolution and use HR policies to silence dissent, they are not neutral actors. They become soft enforcers of a new moral order.
Third, this is about formation, not just headlines.
Every workplace has a liturgy. Over time, employees learn what can and cannot be said. They learn which doctrines must be affirmed and which must be hidden. Silence becomes a habit, and the soul is slowly trained to keep faith “private” even when public justice is at stake.
Guardians are called to resist that slow formation—to remain the same person in the break room that they are in the pew.
Looking at this case through a Guardian’s lens means asking three questions.
1. What is at stake spiritually?
This is not only a legal dispute. It is a clash of allegiances. Will Christians fear corporate disapproval more than God? Will we quietly accept that Scripture has no standing in “serious” public conversations—about law, rights, and the body—or will we speak as if Christ is Lord over boardrooms as well as churches?
2. What is at stake civically?
If corporations can punish employees for asking how new laws will affect women and people of faith, then conscience is no longer protected; it is tolerated only when harmless. A free people cannot remain free if only one side of the moral debate is allowed to speak without fear.
3. What is at stake for community?
When one believer is fired for living their convictions, others watch. Some will grow bolder. Many will grow afraid. The question for a remnant people is simple: Will we leave individuals like Lacey and Marli to stand alone, or will we treat their battle as our own?
You may not work for an airline. Your employer may never ask you to comment on controversial laws. But the same pressures are advancing in schools, hospitals, tech firms, and government offices.
Here are concrete steps a Guardian can take:
The Alaska Airlines case is not an anomaly. It is a preview.
In a culture that preaches “authenticity” while punishing Christian conviction, the real question is not whether corporations will continue to enforce the new orthodoxy. They will. The question is whether men and women formed by the Cross will quietly adjust—or stand, like Lacey and Marli, with their allegiance intact, whatever it costs.
That is the kind of courage that keeps liberty alive.
